From Lab to Community: A Collaborative Approach for Education and Awareness on Microplastics
Cologne International Forum Innovative Tandem Collaboration: 1 August 2024 - 31 July 2025
Dr. Binaya Pattnaik (Pune, India)
Partner at the University of Cologne: Prof. Christina Bogner (Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Institute of Geography)
Abstract
Presence of microplastic in water, soil, sediment, and human tissues is a growing global concern due to their environmental and health risks. These small plastic particles, unlike larger macroplastics, are not easily visible but can enter the food chain, persist in the environment, and travel long distances, posing significant ecosystem threats. The project aims to raise awareness and educate students and teachers about plastic pollution, focusing on microplastics in diverse ecosystems through research, education, and outreach activities.
This initiative builds on a longstanding collaboration between the University of Cologne (UoC), Germany, and Bharati Vidyapeeth University (BVU), India. It will create laboratory facilities to research microplastics, leveraging expertise from both universities. A hybrid course will be developed to enhance joint teaching efforts, addressing plastic pollution in an interdisciplinary manner. Additionally, an extensive outreach program will target school children, teachers, and the general public to educate them on the harmful effects of plastics and encourage proactive measures through workshops, campaigns, and interactive activities. The project seeks to foster scientific understanding and environmental stewardship through collaborative research, teaching, and community engagement.
Dr. Binaya Pattnaik
Dr. Binaya Kumar Pattnaik is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Environment Education & Research, Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Pune, India. Dr. Pattnaik is a Ph.D. holder in Environmental Geochemistry from NIT Rourkela, India. His research has been recognized by numerous peer-reviewed journals through research publications and citations. His research is focused on gaining an understanding of the migration of contaminants in various ecosystems. He is fascinated by the active interaction between various components of ecosystems and emerging contaminants such as microplastic. Dr. Pattnaik's commitment to research and education is oriented towards the advancement of environmental sciences, particularly in the comprehension and mitigation of emergent contaminations in natural resources.
Workshop: Microplastics in a Warming World: From Awareness to Action
One of the core goals of the tandem project led by Dr. Binaya Pattnaik has been to reach out to school children, teachers, and the general public to educate them on the harmful effects of plastics and encourage proactive measures through workshops, campaigns, and interactive activities.
The workshop that has taken place on April 6-7,2026 in Pune for teachers has been a huge success and has left everyone motivated to continue their endeavors.
Impressions
Prof. Shamita Kumar
Principal, Institute of Environment Education and Research, Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Pune
» When teachers understand the crisis, classrooms changae.
Most teachers did not know that microplastics are in our water, our soil, our food, the air of their classrooms, the sea salt in their kitchens, and the clothes their students wear to school. The two-day workshop at BVIEER did what our environmental curricula have largely failed to do , build awareness of microplastics as a present, local, measurable crisis.
The novelty was immediate. Teachers looked at unlabelled microscope images and had to describe, classify, and reason before any label was given. The room fell silent. Then it filled with questions.
The connection between microplastics and climate change and how extreme heat events accelerate plastic fragmentation and release chemical additives, was entirely new to every participant. An extreme heat event, they understood, is not just a public health emergency. It is simultaneously a microplastic pollution event.
Teachers left equipped to teach from local evidence, hold uncertainty honestly, and put students inside the problem rather than in front of it. A six-session student programme followed in schools across Pune. «
Video Feature
The workshop was covered by a news channel as part of Eco India, an ongoing television and digital environmental series co-produced by Scroll and Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle. Watch on YouTube from 8:20.